David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
Edgy Memes Only in Korea
By David Tizzard
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By David A. Tizzard
While most of the real-world here in South Korea was focused on air quality that seemed straight out of a dystopian movie or Fallout computer game, the internet was instead concerned with the closure of a popular local Facebook group, Only in Korea (Oink).
The group itself has been viewed with equal amounts of affection and disdain and was home to a collection of people as varied as those found in the Springfield ― though perhaps with a few more Comic Book Guys and Ralphs than usual.
For some, it was a source of local news, discussion, humor, and a place to communicate about issues that affected life here on the peninsula. From bus stops and fashion, to red bean foodage and inter-cultural violence in schools.
For others, however, it was a cesspit of casual racism, defamation, and cyber bullying. It gave birth to characters, trolls, e-fights, paddlings, bannings, and spin-offs. With approximately 28,000 members (coincidently the same number of American troops based here in South Korea), the group was always likely to be uncontrollable.
And it was that coming together of everyone, from well-intentioned god-fearing people to those set on mischief and malevolence, that likely proved the group's undoing. While the actual reason for the closure as yet remains in the realm of speculation, there was seemingly little that actually held it together.
The group was fractured in terms of its members and, more importantly, their reason for being a part of it. This was both a positive thing ― but also one of its weaknesses.
One only needs to consider the many other internet groups that house members with all sorts of political, moral, or societal values. Not only do those survive, they prosper because people are all there for the same reason.
Whether it's looking for a job, discussing Korean literature, being a parent abroad, attending burlesque shows, or playing Pokemon (I've been informed people still do this), the purpose of the group remains clear and supplies a cohesive effect.
OinK, to me, seemed to have little in the way of purpose. It was sometimes serious. Sometimes pretentious. Sometimes humorous. Sometimes knowledgeable. But rarely consistent. An internet halfway house. A Randle P McMurphy that wasn't quite sure whether or not it was insane or just pretending to be.
Consequently, that is why the 'Edgy Memes' page was always the better choice. For me, at least, the purpose and intent of that group was always clear.
Granted you are not really going to be able to discuss the gentrification of HBC there, but frankly I would rather not do that anyway.
Instead, you get observations on news, politics, and life in Korea distilled into a single image. Yes, some are repetitive. They are memes, after all. But they get to the point straight away.
Whether the topic is the imprisoned ex-President Park Geun-hye, the worsening air quality, Korea-Japan relations, the ubiquitous fan-cams, the maximum land speed of an ajjuma on the subway, or the ease at which one can now buy 4 decent beers for 10,000 won at a convenience store, nothing is off-limits.
Moreover, no one gets asked to defend their opinions. No one is required to provide sources or evidence for what they have posted. And no one is ever accused of having stepped over a line set in hindsight about what does and doesn't constitute good taste.
Its heart is ultimately in the right place and it demonstrates this by abandoning all pretensions of taste or etiquette. It's an off-camera conversation between Frankie Boyle and Jim Jefferies.
Despite these qualities, I remained slightly hesitant about writing on this topic out of fear it might attract a bevy of ne'er-do-wells and dilute whatever passes as quality in the group as it stands.
However, few people if any read my articles and those that do seem more interested in the color of my skin and whether or not I can speak Korean (rubicund and sort of, by the way) so the collective should be safe.
Thus the death knell may have indeed sounded for OinK and its obituary may be that as written by Jon Dunbar in the Korea Times earlier this week, yet the internet lives on and while many mourn the passing of the porcine themed page in the year of the pig, I'll be loading up MS Paint and whipping up something about K-pop starlets and their ill-gained university degrees.
Possibly featuring an image of an ajjoshi standing forlorn amongst a football crowd with his hands on his hips and his trousers hanging low.
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University.